Children’s Contact Service

Helping children stay connected to parents after separation.

With four different sites, we are the largest provider of Children’s Contact Services in South Australia and have been providing these services since 2001. Some children and parents need a Children’s Contact Service to ensure that children are able to remain connected with both parents and at the same time, for all involved, to feel safe and supported.

Our Children’s Contact Services provide a child-focused and safe environment to assist children from separated families to maintain or develop a relationship with both parents where complex or difficult parenting circumstances exist. We provide a space where children feel comfortable and supported so that any distress and anxiety is reduced at times of changeover between parents. The primary aim of our Contact Service is to help children remain connected or connect with all members of their family, and to help everyone to feel safe and comfortable in potentially difficult circumstances. To help with this, our child-friendly centres have toys, games and play equipment.

How we can help you

We start with meeting separately with each parent/carer and make an assessment of the particular situation facing each family member. We have a child focused approach where once an assessment has been made that the service will be beneficial to the child/ren, we then meet with the child/ren to familiarise them with the CCS and assist them to cope with changeover or supervision arrangements.

We can help in the following ways:

Changeover service

We have a Changeover service where children and young people are safely and calmly moved between their separated parents (or other family members) so that parents/carers do not need to see each other.

Supervised contact visits

Supervised contact visitsare blocks of time that children spend with a parent or family member at one of our centres. Visits are supervised by one of our trained workers and can be arranged at the request of both parents, or after a court order.

Interactive playgroup

Following supervised contact we can offer children and parents a chance to attend an interactive playgroup 0-5 years and 5-9 years. This assists them to build a relationship in a safe , fun and positive environment. It can also enable them to stay connected until longer term arrangements can be made.

Support for families

We also provide support for families so that over time they are able to move towards their own, independent contact arrangements.